Recon Corps: Home of the Brave
by Animelover131313
Summary: Natalie was taken into the arms of the Recon Corps; a branch of the Military where their troops would venture out into the wilderness of outside the walls. Join the adventure as Nat grows up, joining her home and going back outside of the walls, with betrayal, tears, love, friendship, and bonds to come with each day, month, year.
1. Chapter 1

The Year of 838- Nat's POV:

Pain. Pain everywhere. Pain was all I could feel. I saw my parents, then looked at the swords that were in their cold hands-well, hand. I picked it up, it heavy and uncomfortable for me to hold. I dropped it, and trembled as the Titan cocked its head to the side, his chest; the Titan's fingers and mouth were dyed red with my parents' blood.

I bit my lip, my figure trembling as I slowly waited for him to turn around; to follow the faint sound of horses galloping. Wait-horses. I looked frantically to the stables, which-to my dismay- had been torn open, blood pooling out of it like a wave of scarlet drops crashing onto the shore of tread grass. I knew that they hid the foal in the bottom stable, but there would be no way that she would survive.

Not here.

Not outside of the wall.

We weren't supposed to be here. My family was supposed to be safe; we were supposed to live inside of the wall- Wall Maria. We were supposed to be merchants that sold goods to passerbys, not soldiers who fought and lived outside of the walls. I didn't understand. Why did we deserve this?

I watched the Titan scoop up the slightly twitching form of my mother, who started to reach her left hand-the only hand she had- to my father's sword, but the Titan easily snapped her wrist back, causing her to scream out in pain. I winced, my frame huddled in the corner that I had cowardly scurried into. I looked at the Titan with horror and pleading in my eyes; only to cover my mouth of its muffled cries as it bent her back, her amber eyes staring into my golden flecked green ones.

"O-Okaa-san…" I whisper, and feel myself sob quietly into my hand, my tears tracing over the lines etched on my fingers and the skin on the back of my hand, the other gripping my mother's blade tightly. I see the Titan lick his lips, seeming to enjoy the feel of my mother's soft-yet brittle- curls against his teeth and tongue, or the feel of her smooth skin enticing his tongue.

He turned to my father, who was slowly itching his way to his sword that was next to him, slowly getting up on his leg, stumbling and jumping into the air, his maneuvering gear glistening like a faint star in the air as he now clung to the Titan, stabbing his blade into the nape of the neck, only a half of a meter in. I look at him wide eyed, his moss green eyes connecting to mine as he tilted his head to the side lightly, as if he was scolding me-like when I would accidentally spill the water onto the hay of the stall of one of their horse's, or when I refused to eat the vegetables that were to make me strong in my eyesight and frame.

I let out a soft cry as the titan slams itself onto the wall, hearing the crack of my father against it. I start to sob harder, my hands now trembling as I drop the blade, it clattering to the ground with a soft thunk, repeating a few times until it stayed still. Luckily, this was enough for the Titan to stop, turning to me curiously and hungrily as I stare at where my father was, his smile a little haunting as he sliced the skin out of the Titan's neck, it giving a rear that smashed his bones, crippling him. Satisfied, my father dropped to the ground, like a topping of smoldering titan guts that were burning in the early sunlight.

Crawling to me, he slowly pressed his blood-dyed lips to my forehead, whispering words of love to me; but I only looked at him, blinking a few times, confused and concerned. He smiled a little, his other hand covering his abdomen, that was now a scarlet color. I let out a gasp, the sound of hoof against the grass louder and louder, until it rang in my ears. I wrapped my tiny arms around his head, crying as he kept kissing my head and uttering words of encouragement to me as he fell limp, his grass-colored eyes staring glazed up at the sky.

"Otou-san!" I wail, shaking his shoulders meekly as I started to bawl again. "Otou-san, wake up!" I plead, rocking myself as I hear the drop of someone's boots on the ground, then the pitter patter of feet walking into our destroyed house.

"Hmph. Looks like they survived for five years without dying out here alone." A familiar voice rumbled, bending down to sniff the blood. "The female got eaten. The male is over there." The man pointed to my figure, and so I only look up at him, scurrying back to the corner. Another figure comes in front, and I recognize him immediately. He was the leader of the Recon Corps; Father told me about him and his adventures with the Commander.

"Be quiet, Max. Their child is here." He scolded, letting out an annoyed sigh. He knelt down in front of me, after Max picked up the body of my father, wrapping it in a white cloth that soon became a crimson. I looked at the man-Erwin, I think- and curled my legs to my chest, starting to let the tears race down my cheeks like raindrops on the window when there were storms.

"What happened here, kid?" He asked with a surprising gentle-yet rough and scratching- voice, and so I only looked down at my toes, my eyes watering all over again.

"A-A Titan came. I don't know what it was, but-but it wasn't normal. It was different than the others Okaa-san and Otou-san fought. It-It was smarter, and-it could see through their moves. It beat them easily, somehow." I whisper, and let out a soft sigh. "It seemed...human, in some way. But-but it smelled-" I only shake my head, my mind spinning.

I feel a calloused hand pat my head, and so I only look up to see a girl who looked about 23. "W-Who are you?" I whisper, and wipe my eyes against the back of my sleeve, it being one of my father's that went over my frame like a blanket. She only laughed, and gently ruffled my hair, much to one of the men's disgust; one who was leaning against the doorframe, bored.

"Let us go, before more Titans come to these ruins." Erwin suggests, starting to get up, helping me up with him. Setting me on the horse, another faint, weak whinny was heard from the stables. I turned, to see a blonde man holding a foal; one that had dark fur with lighter flecks along its flank.

"L-Lolita." I whisper, and start to try to get off the horse, only to see it get set down gently on a space in the carriage. I was reassured by the girl- her name, I learned, was Hanji Zoe- that she was safe and they were going back inside the walls. Clutching onto the man, Erl, as he galloped on a chestnut stallion, I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

1 Year Later- Nat's POV:

I sat impatiently on the bench, looking up at the 24 year old brunette, who was brushing the fluff of bundled feathers over the walls and vases that surrounded the eating area. "Onii-San, it's already clean enough." I protest as Levi only shook his head, frustratedly started to pull his mask down. Petra was bickering with Olou, and Erl was eating next to me, his back hunched and his scruffy beard was coated with syrup that topped his porridge.

"Nat, you do not grasp the meaning of 'clean'." Levi announced, patting my head once before starting to sit down after wrinkling his nose, pushing away his bowl of porridge, then slowly taking a few bites of the yellow and white scrambled eggs on his circular plate.

"Everyone, get ready to depart at noon, we'll be doing another go to the outside." We turn and so I wave at Max, him giving a sniff to my head then grinning, patting my head reassuringly. "I'll be fine, I've been doing this for years. Don't worry about me, kiddo; worry about the idiots of Levi's team." He teased, and grinned cheekily as Günther flung a spoonful of porridge his way, catching most in his mouth with a glub, the other small specks splattering beside him against the wall. Stifling a laugh, he just licked his finger after swooping a finger over the chunks of porridge.

Levi made a strangled noise at the back of his throat, making me giggle as I looked back at the man, who Petra was now trying to comfort instead of arguing with Olou. "H-heichou, it'll be okay, I'll go wash it off..." She tried, her cheeks flaming when he nodded and patted her head, flattening it. Standing up, her maneuver gear made soft clinks against her waist as she got up, padding over to the nearby wall, taking an emergency sponge and towel from her belt, scrubbing off the brown stain the breakfast made on the wall.

"Er-chan, why can't I come?" I pout adorably as I look up at him as he shuffles to gather his composure, but sigh in annoyance when he only chuckled, patting my head as he readjusted his maneuver gear and blades, holding up his bag.

"Because you're only four and can barely hold a blade. You're Titan food outside. But we'll make a man of you, don't worry!" He smiles, and ruffles my hair, kissing it again before turning, letting me watch as he and the others of the team start to abandon their breakfasts that were now only empty plates, starting to get up and towards the door.

I pout, and swing my legs off from the inside of the bench, hopping off and stumbling to the group, getting caught by Gunther and giggling cheekily. "Onii-san, Pe-chan, Er-chan, promise you'll come back?" I offered, and smiled a little when they only nodded, Petra kissing my forehead and hugging me, Levi nodding curtly and stalking out of the room to the horses, and Erl kissing my head. Olou ruffled my hair, punching my shoulder playfully, and Gunther put me down, patting my head.

"We'll come back as soon as we can, kiddo." He said, waving to me as they left me for the Titans waiting outside the walls.


	2. Chapter 2

5 Years Later- The Year of 844- Nat's POV:

I held the blade tightly in my hands, holding myself upright with the Maneuver Gear, the cords in acute angles; the anchors at the end of the rope latched onto the cracks of the walls. Levi was observing me, his figure rigid beside Petra's relaxed and soothing form. He was patting her head down, disgusted by her hairs that flew up in protest. Erl and Günther were watching me, Erl with a complex look and Günther with a piece of paper, scribbling notes down.

"She's doing good, for a kid." Olou drawled, chugging down an ale with a loud belch. I grinned, happy to get a compliment from the senior. "Anywho, the Titans are getting bigger and bigger each time we go out, remember when Petra shit herself?" Olou smirked, and Petra's cheeks and neck flushed with embarrassment and fury.

"O-Olou, you threw up on your teammate!" She retorted, and so I giggled, swinging slightly as I rocked back and forth in the harness. They looked at me with twin glares, but that only made me smile a little more, and so I kept my attention to my harness. I squealed as the cord snapped, causing me to land on my bum on the cobblestone.

Rubbing my back, I sniffled, tears filling my big, childish eyes. "P-pe-chan!" I wailed, a red splotch forming under my blouse down my back. Günther looked at me with startled, wide eyes; while Erl covered his mouth to sustain a chuckle. Olou barked out a laugh, causing Petra to shoot him a biting glare as she helped me up, Levi dusting me off with a gloved hand.

"Urusai!" Petra said with a huff, setting me on her lap, gently rubbing my back as I whimpered into her chest. Undoing my harness and pulling it down, Erl heaved a heavy sigh that disguised his chuckle. Petra glanced at him pointedly, both she and I knowing that he was amused.

"Looks like you need a bit more practice before going into the Corps, kiddo." He says, gently ruffling my hair as he plopped down next to me. "At least you didn't do as bad as Olou did. He flipped upside down immediately almost every day." He teased the grayette, causing him to spit out the ale he was drinking.

"Eh! Not as bad as Petra, the noisy wife!" He quickly defended himself harshly, grinning as Petra started to yell at him with an infuriated voice as she rubbed my back under my blouse, and I closed my eyes, letting myself drift off into a peaceful, homey slumber.

* * *

1 Year Later- The Year of 845- Nat's POV:

While playing tag with a girl named Annie in the fields of Wall Maria while waiting for the Recon Corps, a blast of a gate being kicked in roared through the walls, causing a tremor to rise to our feet, knocking us down. "Annie!" I cried, my head falling against a boulder as a rock the size of a meteor started to plummet onto my figure.

"Nat!" I heard a familiar man's voice bellow from the distance, but they were swept away by the hand of an Abnormal Titan. "David!" I heard a woman's voice shriek from the other side, and so she trailed after the Titan. Before I felt the meteor crush my frame and the organs, blood, and guts inside, I could feel the cool breeze of a shadow hover over me. I looked up to see a Titan with blonde tufts of hair that fell to her shoulders, and cold, icy blue eyes that leered into mine as she hefted the rock on her shoulders.

"Annie? What-what happened to Annie?" I start softly, my lip trembling as the Titan only grunted in response-a long huff of air- and so I took that as no answer. "No... What happened to Annie?!" I felt tears fill my eyes, falling down my cheeks like little droplets of rain. The Titan shook her head, kneeling on one leg to keep herself balanced. "Answer me, please!" I hiccuped a sob, turning my head each way to look for my friend across the vast land of fields and plains, the Titans venturing closer until I knew I would die if I didn't move.

The Titan grunted again, a girl and her mother running from an Abnormal Titan. Lifting the rock up, the Titan shoved it down away from us and on the group, blood splattering over us and a wail heard. My eyes shake with grief and horror, my hands trembling as I clamp them over my mouth, a broken sob escaping my lips as the Titan looked me in the eyes, as if saying, 'At least it wasn't you.'

"Oi! You! Get outta the way!" Someone shoved me to the ground, leaping over me. I heard the 3D Maneuver gear squeal as its anchors latched onto the Titan, the man soaring like an eagle before being pulled down harshly from the cords, the Titan's fingers wrapped around the almost invisible cord, making my eyes widen.

"S-stop! Please!" I beg, and feel myself quiver as I watched the Titan woman slam her hand down on the ground, her palm smashing the man with the cord. Smearing the guts and dirt over her leg, she started to stand up, looking like she was considering to take back her 'kindness' to me and crush me with her foot.

"Kid!" I heard a man yell, and so I looked to my right, seeing a man running towards me. He had cropped blonde hair, and brown eyes that were weary, a beige, cropped jacket with the scarlet roses that were decorated over the silver emblem. A Garrison. Scooping me up with one arm, he quickly turned to the Titan-about to charge- but then saw the look she gave to him. It was as if she was bidding him a blessing, 'Take care of my friend', like that. I didn't know how he got that message, but he only nodded, quickly giving off a screech of his Maneuver gear as he jumped in the air, the gas hissing as he and I flew into the next wall.


	3. Chapter 3

6 Months Later- Nat's POV:

I was jerked awake by another nightmare plaguing my head like a migraine, and so I only sighed wearily, rubbing the dark circles under my golden flecked irises. Pulling myself up from the nest I had made as my home, I slowly walked into the town center, brushing past others as I shuffled in the line for a loaf of bread. I looked around in my surroundings, half hoping to see the familiar amber head of Petra, or the dirty blonde hair of Max or- or Erl. Oh God, I missed them so much.

I missed how Erl had tucked me into bed at 8:00 sharp, no later and no earlier, and how Petra and Oluo bickered over obsolete nonsense that crossed their minds. I missed how Levi always gave me baths after coming back from a mission, thinking that they didn't take good care of keeping my hygiene at its peak. I missed how Günther was the only one who actually taught me self-defense and useful techniques; I missed everything.

"Oi, get moving you brat!" A hand came down to my back, making my eyes water as I felt my frame get shoved ruthlessly into the cobblestone street. Wincing, I rubbed my backside as I turned to see the man who pushed me. I look up and see a hand held out to me, and so I look to see a tall boy with dark, shaggy hair covering his eyes, and a muscular and stocky boy next to him, along with a girl who had cold, icy blue eyes and pale blonde hair that was pulled back tightly into a bun.

"She didn't do anything wrong, she was just trying to get her serving of bread." The male blonde growled lowly, his voice deep and powerful, like a dragon's roar. The taller boy twitched, sweat appearing from his brow and sliding down his right cheekbone.

"Get outta 'ere, brats!" The man roared, holding up his hand as if to slap the blonde away. My eyes widened and I covered my head with my hands, curling into a feral ball to protect myself, but when his hand swung with an expected thwack, I opened my eyes again to see the boy with an angered expression, his hand effortlessly blocking the man's burly arm. "What the-" Before the man could finish, the stocky boy flipped over the man, holding his arm against his back.

"I said, she didn't do nothin' wrong." He said with a low voice, dangerously calm but also a snip of a thread away from losing his patience and getting into a brawl with the dark haired man, if the brunette, tall boy didn't interfere. He grabbed the boy's arm, and gently yanked it back.

"T-that is good enough, Reiner. Stop it." He warned, and so the blonde boy slowly pulled his fist back, growling as he left the man trembling there, holding a hand to my own shaking figure. I looked to him, my eyes wide as I gazed at him and his two companions, wondering what they were doing alone, and why they would try to help out someone like me against those kinds of men.

"W-who are you?" I sputter out, my cheeks flushed as I started to prop myself up, looking up to the girl who had her shoulder-length hair in a bun, her eyes cross and stern. When her eyes met mine, her eyes widened slightly, then softening for a millisecond; but then her pride and conscious took over, making then harden and her hands shoving themselves in her pockets of her tattered sweatshirt.

"We're Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie. You can stick with us." The tall, dark haired boy said gently, placing a soft, shaking hand on my head as he crouches to my level. "It's alright. We won't hurt you." He soothed me, slowly wrapping his arms around me and picking me up easily; it would be easy for anyone to pick someone tiny like me; because of starvation, many are now half the weight they were before the Fall.

My cheeks flush until my freckles on my nose were not visible anymore, and then the blonde boy, Reiner, grinned at me with his teeth shown off proudly. "Don't worry; we'll be your bodyguards! I'm super strong, and Berth here is super smart; well, when he's not in a corner shaking." He teased, causing Berth's cheeks to flame a scarlet. Annie didn't say a word, she only tugged on Berth's sleeve.

"We need to show her self defense skills, if she wants to survive here." She says coldly, but looks at me with the same eyes as Berth and Reiner; protective, fierce eyes like a dog who was willing to protect its master.

At that moment, I felt like a queen.

* * *

A Night Later- Nat's POV:

"How'd you manage to get warm milk, Reiner?!" Berth almost shrieked, though his tone was only to a whisper, so the people passing by didn't gather any interest in the four kids huddled in a corner by the closest Wall; Berth was crouching protectively over Annie and I, while Reiner proudly displayed the small, steaming mug that held a few sip fills of warm, fresh milk.

"Fresh milk is very rare at the moment." Annie mused, licking her lips as she rested her chin in her fists, slowly watching the two other children, Berth and I, handle the situation, the two of us being good-doers and the 'parents' of our group. She looked to me with a brow raised, as if she was asking, 'Well, will you scold him or let this go?' I sighed lightly, and scooted closer, my stomach growling loudly as I slowly curled up in the rags of our little fort we had made in the last few hours of the noon, collecting and scavenging towels and cloths that fluttered in the air from someone's clothes line or from a shop of a rich man nearby.

"I got it from some windowsill in the bakery nearby! Neat, right?!" He bellowed, his chest puffed up with pride. Squeaking, Berth stood up with wide eyes and his brow furrowed, sweat rolling down his temple as he loomed over the blonde, who was busy admiring his stolen treat.

"You will put it back as soon as you-" His expression shattered as Reiner gulped down a few sips, wiping his mouth and smiling. "R-Reiner! If you're going to keep it, then you at least have to give some of us it too!" He scolded, then flushed of embarrassment as he said this, his stomach moaning like a cow afterwards.

"Fine, jeez! Such a grouch." He grumbled under his breath, passing the cup to Annie, who took a few gulps, the white liquid dripping down her chin from the corner of her mouth, and so she wiped it off with her tongue, now satisfied and a milk mustache over her lips. I giggled faintly, then gladly took the mug, taking a gulp the coughing, whimpering as I had burnt my tongue.

"O-ow!" I whine, and rub my cheek, sniffling as I rub my cheek with my tiny hand, sighing. "Here Berth." I hold out the cup, though it had barely any left for him. He smiles a little at me, and gulps down the rest, tilting his head up to get every last drop. He leans his head down, and smiles assuringly at all of us.

"I got some, don't worry." He stifles a yawn, then chuckles as Reiner does the same. He pulls us together, pressing Annie's frame into his own, Reiner cuddled up next to me and my head nestled in Annie's shoulder, my figure curled into a small ball but feeling assured, since the hard, broad chest of Reiner and the soft, warm shoulder of Annie was nestled up against me, I felt like Titans wouldn't hurt me.

As long as my friends stayed here.


End file.
